WHY BLUE REVOLUTION ,WHY NOW, & WHY ESPECIALLY IN PAKISTAN?

Published on by

Throughout the world the water table is going down. Today around 3800 km3 of fresh water is withdrawn annually from the world's lakes, rivers, and aquifers. This is twice the volume extracted 50 years ago.There is a fixed amount of water on the planet, which can be neither increased nor decreased. However, water is continually recycled and purified by the hydrological cycle. An increasing scarcity of fresh water is now a major threat to global agriculture, food security, health and peace among nations. In both the cases human factor is crucial. According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) water use has raised six fold since 1900, more than double the rate of population growth. With the world's population projected to top 8 billion by 2024 from 7, 248, 069,8417(Watch World Population) http://www.worldometers.info/watch/world-population/ now, freshwater supplies will not be able to keep pace with rate of growth in population.Ticking Bomb of Population, Even conservative estimates indicate that the population of Pakistan will grow to 208 million by the year 2024. About 50 per cent of the population will be living in the urban areas thus exerting additional pressure on the already strained existing facilities. Situation at present is very precarious due to our typical lethargic policies. Our political leadership must wake up before it is too late.An ambitious study conducted by Carnegie Corporation of New York USA projected Pakistan as severely water scarce country in South Asia in 2025. Pakistan will require 335 billion cubic meters of water whereas it will have no more than 233 billion cubic meters available. We appeal to government and all non-government organisations to come forward and formulate united efforts to put an end to shortfall of 102 billion cubic meters. Now is the right time that water wisdom and its awareness is introduced among rural as well as urban areas to plan suitable strategies to cope with a disaster massive in scale. To provide adequate water supply and sanitation coverage to this massive growth in population would require large investment in this sector amounting to Rs.12 billion (245 million US$) per year. Let the present government exert all its efforts to pool up the requisite funds to meet these challenges. In this connection, dynamic leadership promotes and formulates united efforts to construct dams and reservoir in the country to put an end to shortfall of 102 billion cubic meters. If water sources were not developed, a human and economic Cates trophy will surely occur. That is why a dynamic leadership is needed for Pakistan to uplift water resources and resolve other water related issues on emergency basis. Active leadership and renewed political commitment and financial investment can solve the country water crisis. Country security, including the threat of terrorism, is linked to human and environmental insecurity, which are linked to the implementation of water related projects. Food security and improved nutrition, for which access to water is crucial, reduces susceptibility to many easily preventable diseases and lowers child and maternal mortality. Investment in water resources including construction of Dams, Reservoirs and domestic water supply and sanitation, leads to improved human health, productivity, purchasing power and dignity of citizens. The picture seems hopeless, but the outlook could be better if stakeholders of all kinds, among them, government, businesses and civil society and aid organizations commit themselves to goal-oriented actions of Blue Revolution.